Early November is the date for the UK’s summit on AI safety, according to leaks yesterday. Offers have been sent out for new AI Civil Service roles. British politics seems increasingly important to the AI safety world.
This is my attempt to justify the ways of Westminster to EA, and EA to Westminster. I’m spotlighting recent headlines on the AI summit, semiconductor trade policy, and alternative proteins.
I'm planning to circulate this around some EAs, but also some people working in the Civil Service, political consulting and journalism. Many might already be familiar with the stories. But I think this might be useful if I can (a) provide insightful UK political context for EAs, or (b) provide an EA perspective to curious adjacents. I'll probably continue this if I think either (a) or (b) is paying off.
(I work at Rethink Priorities, but this is entirely in my personal capacity).
Thanks for sharing Ben! As a UK national and resident I'm grateful for an easy way to be at least a little aware of relevant UK politics, which I otherwise struggle to manage.
EDIT 2024-06-10: We are no longer accepting applications. Thank you to all who got in touch.
The Animal Welfare Department at Rethink Priorities is recruiting volunteer researchers to support on a high-impact project!
We’re conducting a review on interventions to reduce meat consumption, and we’re seeking help checking whether academic studies meet our eligibility criteria. This will involve reviewing the full text of studies, especially methodology sections.
We’re interested in volunteers who have some experience reading empirical academic literature, especially postgraduates. The role is an unpaid volunteer opportunity. We expect this to be a ten week project, requiring approximately five hours per week. But your time commitment can be flexible, depending on your availability.
This is an exciting opportunity for graduate students and early career researchers to gain research experience, learn about an interesting topic, and directly participate in an impactful project. The Animal Welfare Department will provide support and, if desired, letters of experience for volunteers.
If you are interested in volunteering with us, contact Ben Stevenson at bstevenson@rethinkpriorities.org. Please share either your CV, or a short statement (~4 sentences) about your experience engaging with empirical academic literature. Candidates will be invited to complete a skills assessment. We are accepting applications on a rolling basis, and will update this listing when we are no longer accepting applications.
Please reach out to Ben if you have any questions. If you know anybody who might be interested, please forward this opportunity to them!
Hi Bruce, thank you for your questions. I’m leading this project and made the decision to recruit volunteers, so thought I’d be best positioned to respond. (And Ben’s busy protesting for shrimp welfare today anyway!)
Did the team consider a paid/minimum wage position instead of an unpaid one? How did it decide on the unpaid positions?
Yes, we would prefer to offer additional paid positions. However, given the budget for this project, we were not able to offer such positions.
We regularly receive unsolicited inquiries from people interested in volunteering for our research. There is not always a good fit, but since this project is highly modular allowing people to meaningfully contribute with just a few hours of time, we decided to provide a formal volunteer opportunity.
Is the theory of change for impact here mainly an "upskill students/early career researchers" thing, or for the benefits to RP's research outputs?
The primary theory of change is to improve the evidence-base for interventions to reduce animal product usage, thus allowing more and better interventions to be implemented and reducing the numbers of animals harmed by factory farming. RP’s research outputs are a mediator in this theory of change. The volunteer opportunity itself also represents an opportunity to upskill, but ultimately the goal for all involved is to benefit non-human animals.
What is RP's current policy on volunteers?
RP occasionally considers and engages with volunteers for some projects, especially where relatively small time-limited contributions are possible.
Does RP expect to continue recruiting volunteers for research projects in the future?
In practice, this will depend on the project and whether there are other opportunities that would be an appropriate fit.
I've just written a blog post to summarise EA-relevant UK political news from the last ~six weeks.
The post is here: AI summit, semiconductor trade policy, and a green light for alternative proteins (substack.com)
I'm planning to circulate this around some EAs, but also some people working in the Civil Service, political consulting and journalism. Many might already be familiar with the stories. But I think this might be useful if I can (a) provide insightful UK political context for EAs, or (b) provide an EA perspective to curious adjacents. I'll probably continue this if I think either (a) or (b) is paying off.
(I work at Rethink Priorities, but this is entirely in my personal capacity).
Thanks for sharing Ben! As a UK national and resident I'm grateful for an easy way to be at least a little aware of relevant UK politics, which I otherwise struggle to manage.
Thanks Ben! Glad it was helpful1
EDIT 2024-06-10: We are no longer accepting applications. Thank you to all who got in touch.
The Animal Welfare Department at Rethink Priorities is recruiting volunteer researchers to support on a high-impact project!
We’re conducting a review on interventions to reduce meat consumption, and we’re seeking help checking whether academic studies meet our eligibility criteria. This will involve reviewing the full text of studies, especially methodology sections.
We’re interested in volunteers who have some experience reading empirical academic literature, especially postgraduates. The role is an unpaid volunteer opportunity. We expect this to be a ten week project, requiring approximately five hours per week. But your time commitment can be flexible, depending on your availability.
This is an exciting opportunity for graduate students and early career researchers to gain research experience, learn about an interesting topic, and directly participate in an impactful project. The Animal Welfare Department will provide support and, if desired, letters of experience for volunteers.
If you are interested in volunteering with us, contact Ben Stevenson at bstevenson@rethinkpriorities.org. Please share either your CV, or a short statement (~4 sentences) about your experience engaging with empirical academic literature. Candidates will be invited to complete a skills assessment.
We are accepting applications on a rolling basis, and will update this listing when we are no longer accepting applications.Please reach out to Ben if you have any questions. If you know anybody who might be interested, please forward this opportunity to them!
Hey Ben! A few quick Qs:
Hi Bruce, thank you for your questions. I’m leading this project and made the decision to recruit volunteers, so thought I’d be best positioned to respond. (And Ben’s busy protesting for shrimp welfare today anyway!)
Yes, we would prefer to offer additional paid positions. However, given the budget for this project, we were not able to offer such positions. We regularly receive unsolicited inquiries from people interested in volunteering for our research. There is not always a good fit, but since this project is highly modular allowing people to meaningfully contribute with just a few hours of time, we decided to provide a formal volunteer opportunity.
The primary theory of change is to improve the evidence-base for interventions to reduce animal product usage, thus allowing more and better interventions to be implemented and reducing the numbers of animals harmed by factory farming. RP’s research outputs are a mediator in this theory of change. The volunteer opportunity itself also represents an opportunity to upskill, but ultimately the goal for all involved is to benefit non-human animals.
RP occasionally considers and engages with volunteers for some projects, especially where relatively small time-limited contributions are possible.
In practice, this will depend on the project and whether there are other opportunities that would be an appropriate fit.